Nicaragua Bloodbath Continues, International Condemnation Increases

 

HAVANA TIMES – Shootings, abduction of opponents, attacks on churches, priests and bishops and at least ten dead, marked Sunday in the continuing attempt by Daniel Ortega to crush the civic rebellion against his government. Meanwhile, international condemnation of the escalation of violence is growing by the day, reported dpa news.

According to independent human rights organizations, at least ten people, including four police officers and a 10-year-old girl who did not receive medical attention, were killed in several cities of Nicaragua during Police and paramilitary operations against protesters entrenched in neighborhoods and roads.

The situation of greatest tension was lived in the city of Masaya, 27 kilometers from the capital, besieged and under attack all day by combined forces of the police and paramilitaries, noted Álvaro Leiva, director of the Nicaraguan Association for Human Rights (ANPDH). , Independent).

Leiva told Channel 15 TV that it was urgent to establish a “humanitarian corridor” to evacuate a large number of wounded and save lives.

“We cannot evacuate the wounded at this moment, please, as a humanitarian gesture allow a corridor to get the wounded out. The city (of Masaya) is surrounded. There is no way to enter or leave and denying medical attention to the wounded of a conflict becomes a crime against humanity,” he added.

According to the human rights activist, among the deceased there are four riot police and a ten-year-old girl from Catarina (southern Masaya) who was shot in the abdomen. “The girl died for lack of medical attention,” he said.

Violence broke out from the early hours of Sunday to the small neighboring cities of Catarina, Niquinohomo (province of Masaya), Diria and Diriomo (province of Granada), where the population awoke with the attack of paramilitaries who removed defensive “tranques”
(roadblocks) and barricades.

Without mentioning the violent operations against the blockades, the government’s el19digital.com  website published photographs of the sections of road they said “are already unblocked and that the population can circulate with tranquility and safely, to carry out their daily activities.”

The operations include the illegal detention of opposition demonstrators, assured Leiva.

Antonia Urrejola, special rapporteur for Nicaragua of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), said Sunday that the OAS body has “knowledge of the violent repression of the populations of Masaya, Niquinohomo, Catarina, Diriomo with wounded and and detainees. ” She added, “The State seems to ignore the dialogue, Nicaragua must guarantee the lives of the people and respect due process of law.”

The illegal detentions were also denounced by Yubrank Suazo, a leader of the April 19^th Movement of Masaya, who via telephone confirmed to Channel 15 TV a “strong presence of paramilitaries in all exits of the city” with the apparent intention of attacking the Monimbo neighborhood, a bastion of the opposition in the protests against the Government of Daniel Ortega.

The day also included attacks on religious figures. In Nindiri, east of Managua and close to Masaya, paramilitaries and government supporters fired on the vehicle carrying the bishop of Esteli, Monsignor Abelardo Mata, a well-known critic of President Ortega. The bishop and his driver were unharmed.

Meanwhile, in Catarina, south of Masaya, paramilitaries and police assaulted the local Catholic Church priest’s residence of that tourist city and stole his belongings, denounced the Archdiocese of Managua.

Despite the stepped-up violence, demonstrations against the government and in favor of the liberation of demonstrators continued in the capital and other cities around the country, among them. Peasant leader Medardo Mairena, a member of the Civic Alliance that participates in the National Dialogue, remains arrested and incommunicado since Saturday under the terrorism and organized crime charges being leveled against the more than a hundred demonstrators captured.

The IACHR and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OACNUDH) reported Sunday that they went to the El Chipote prison and to the Judicial Complex of Managua to learn the status of the detainees. “Entrance was restricted in both places, and we asked the Nicaraguan State and Justice system to allow access to verify the legal situation of the prisoners,” said the IACHR.

The growing violence that shakes Nicaragua received on Sunday the condemnation of the European Union (EU) and the Governments of Spain, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Chile, which urged the Ortega government to resume the path of dialogue.

“The acts of violence against students and civilians in Nicaragua, as well as the delay in providing emergency medical assistance to the wounded, are deplorable,” said a statement from the EU’s Foreign Policy representative, Federica Mogherini.

“We hope that the authorities guarantee the security of the population and respect for fundamental rights. All the violence has to stop now,” she added.

Nicaragua lives its worst crisis in 40 years, which began with a non-violent student protest against pension reform and greatly intensified after the government’s deadly attack on the demonstrators.